Frictional gearing



May 8, 1923. 4 1,454,615

7 I D. APPLEGATE v FRICTIQIJAL GEARING,

Filed March '24, 1922 s Sheets-Sheet 1 gwuentoz B .dzalegw Wz'iha'ss:

l 0 mm am new May 8, 1923.

D. APPLEGATE FRICTIONAL GEARING I 7 Filed March 24, 1922 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Y m w Quorum May 8, 1,454,615

D. APPLEGATE FRICTIONAL GEARING Filed March 24. 1922 C5 Sheets-Sheet 3 Patented May 8, 1923.

PATENTOFFIICE.

DANIEL APPLEGATE 'OF PORT CLINTON, OHIO.

FRICTIONAL GEARING.

Application filed. March 24, 1922. Serial No. 546,243.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, DANIEL APPLEGATE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Port Clinton, in the'county of Ottawa and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Frictional Gearing, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to improvements in frictional gearing and ithas for its object to provide a novel and effective driving mechanism by means of-which the power of the prime mover may be variably transmitted to the driven parts without the use of the usual reduction gearing of the spur type which produces a great deal of noise and is subject to' heavy wear and breakage.

The invention involves a novel arrangement of transmission instrumentalities especially designed for the operation of such apparatus as is shown in my prior Patent No. 1,351,604, granted August 31, 1920, for ice harvesting apparatus, whereby the machine may be operated in reverse directions at variable speeds and with correspondingly varying power, according to the work to be done. r

In the carr ing out of my invention I employ whatv term for the purpose of this description, apair of variable driving members, each of which is adjustable independently of the other, one of said members being capable of adjustment to reverse direction of movement of the driven member,

The prime object inview is'to provide an arrangement of this character such that it is possible to employ one of the driving members for primary variations of the speed to be imparted to the driven member, while theother of said driving members isudesigned to vary this primary control in ac cordancewith the character of the work to be accomplished. 1 Q

These and such other objects as-may hereinafter appear are attained by the novel construction, combination and arrangement ofvparts to be hereinafterspecifically described and claimed. 1 .s I Reference will now be had to theaccompanying drawings forming a part of this specification, wherein: I

liigure 1 is a side elevation of an ice harvesting machine to which my invention herein set forth is specifically applied.

said disklf Figure 2 is a top plan view of the transmission gearing; and related parts.

2 Figure '3 isa front elevation of my invention.

Figure 4 is a rear elevation thereof.

Throughout the following detailed description and on the several figures of the drawing, similar parts are referred to by like reference characters.

For the purpose of illustration only I have shown the present invention applied to the ice harvesting machine depicted in my prior patent, but I desire it to be understood that its utilityis in no wise limited to this particular-field of apparatus.

In thejdrawings, 1 indicates the frame of an ice harvesting machine and 2 the traction or ground wheel therefor which is operated by means of a driving chain 3 passing over a drum or spool 4 mounted upon thedriven shaft -5. At a convenient point the prime mover 6 is mounted upon the body and'power is taken therefrom by means of the chain or equivalent 7 passing around the sprocket 8 upon the extremity of-the driving, shaft '9. This shaft is journaled in suitable supports 10 andhas splined upon its end the friction element or wheel 11. Theshaft with this wheel is continuously driven by the engine in the operation of this apparatus and the power is taken from the driving shaft!) through the coaction of the wheel 11 witha relatively large friction disk 12 which is mounted upon the forward end of a counter shaft 13. The friction'wheel 11, it' nay be stated at this point, isshiftable longitudinally of the driving shaft 9 by means of the hand lever 14 which is provided with a ring-like extremity 15 engaging in a grooved extension 16 of the wheel 11. The horizontal portion 17 of the hand lever- 14 isslidably mounted in a bearing support 18so that it is; possible to vshift the lever l leasily to Lmove the wheel 11 radially of the friction'disk 12, either toward the periphery or toward the axis of The 1 counter; shaft mounted the upp( r part of a pair of'pivotally secured standards'19, the pivots for said standards being designated 20, so as to swing toward orfr'om a second friction'disk 21 fixed to the inner extremity of the driven shaft 5.

Mounted upon the shaft 13 is a second friction driving element 22 corresponding in character with the first mentioned driving wheel 11, the said wheel 22 beingslidable upon the shaft 13 by means of a shifting lever 23 mounted adjacent to the primary shifting lever 14, above described, The lever 23 has a horizontal portion 23 extending rear-' wardly and a vertically extending extremityforwardly or rearwardly in a direction also radially of the disk 21.

The friction element 22 is maintainedin contact with the disk 21 by the adjustable tension devices 25 mounted adjacent'to the top of the standards 19 so as to bear against the said standards and tend to hold the wheel in contact with the disk 21 with suflicient pressure to insure transmission to the driven shaft 5. The yieldable tension'devices 25 may be adjusted in the usual manner to preserve the necessary amount of tension regardless of the wear which takes place upon the friction element'22. Owing to the pivotal mounting of the shaft 13 in the supports 19' the shifting of the wheel 22 may be facilitated by pressure against the lever 23 at right angles to its support 24: and against the tension of the pressure devices 25 thereby moving the supp'orts19 outwardly and the wheel 22 away from the disk'21. This'relieve's the pressure and enables the lever 23 to be shifted' longitudi nally of its support to position the wheel 22 at the proper point in the radius ofthe disk 21 to produce the desired result.

To prevent any tendency of side pressure being produced which would the shaft 13 out of parallelism withthe face of the disk 21, I preferably mount adjustable supports 26 at points upon the' frame to coact with the pivoted supports 19 for the shaft 13. This maintains an. alinement' of these supports and the shaft when iathe operative positionof the wheel 22 contacting with thedisk 21. I a

p The shaft 13 which carries the primary friction disk 12 is not only laterallymovable, but is furthermore, longitudinally shiftable in the supports 19 to produce a movement of the said disk out of driving relation with respect to the friction wheel 11. Normally. however, this disk 12 is maintained in driving contact with the wheel 11 by virtue of the interposition of the spring 27 between the forward standard 19 and the disk 12, asshown clearly in Fig ure 2. Whenitjs desired' tjo declutc-h the drive for purposes hereinafter specified, the

hand lever 28 pivotally secured to the frame in' 'a'dvance of the disk" 12 is moved rearwardly so as to bring "the headed extension or arm 29 projecting therefrom into contact With the axis of the disk 12. By continuation of the movement the disk and the shaft 13 'are'sh'ifted rearwardly. This declutching operation is particularly designed to be carried out when it is desired to position the friction drivingmember 22 with respect to the disk 21 to propeljthe vehicle in the proper direction forwardly or rearwardly and whenthe" vehicle is at a standstill. To accomplish this control of the direction of movement of the vehicle, I first 'declutch [the disk 12', as above-described, and then move the Wheel 22longitudinally "upon its shaft 13 by the lever 23 to one side or the other of the axis of thedisk 21. If this wheel' 22 is'positioned near the "periphery of'the disk 21 as shown in Figure 2, it will transmit a speed to the driven shaft 5 corresponding to the speed of the shaft 9 with the primary driving wheel 11 at the corresponding position with respect to the disk12. Furthermore, when the wheel 11 is in this relation to the disk 12 the slowest speed is imparted to the traction member and the greatest amount of'power is thus transmitted. To

increase the speed of movement of the vehicle requires only that the wheel 11 be movedjinwardly toward the axis of the disk 12' withoutany variation in the positioning of the wheeli22 However, a greater speed may be produced bya corresponding movementof the wheel 22 toward the axis of the disk 21. A distinct advantage in this arrangement lies in the fact that the wheel 11 may be 'p'erm itted to remain in its driving relation to' the disk12while the secondary driving wheel 22 lmay' be independently moved" or adjusted with respect to the drivenfdisl'r 21'. The" positioning of the wheel 22'is' primarily controlled'in the particular apparatusby; for example, the thickness of the ice which is to be cut, or, broadly speaking, the work to be done. If the ice isf'thi'ck the maximum amount of power is desired and the frictionelements 11 and 12 would" preferably be positioned as shown in Figure2. This would be subject to variation" wher less power wasrequired to do the work by shifting either or both of the wheels toward the axes of the friction disk.

Combinations of the positions of these wheels would produce variations in the speed aii'dfthe power and the adjustment of the one wheel 22 to one side or the other of the axis of the disk 21 would control the direction of movement of the vehicle so that a very wide range of",v'ariability. in these factors is obtainable specific adapta iQ'f r len l d f Havingthus described my sate-0&1; what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In variable speed mechanisms of the class described, the combination of a driven shaft, a driving shaft, a counter shaft intermediate said driving' and driven shafts, coacting friction elements on the counter and driven shafts, the friction element on the counter shaft having splined connection therewith to permit of relative movement with respect thereto, and means at the end of the counter shaft for shifting said counter shaft with respect to the driven shaft and the friction element thereon to break operative connection with the latter while maintaining operative relation to the driving shaft.

2. In variable speed mechanism of the class described, the combination of driving and driven shafts, a counter shaft, friction elements adjustable on the driving and counter shafts, coacting stationary friction elements on the counter and driven shafts, and means to shift the counter shaft without changing the driving adjustment of the adjustable friction elements with respect to their stationary elements.

3. In variable speed mechanism of the class described, the combination of driving and driven shafts, an intermediate counter shaft, spaced standards supporting the counter shaft, a support for said standards to which the latter are swingingly connected, friction elements carried by all of said shafts for imparting variable speed to the driven shaft, and a lever coacting with the support for the counter shaft standards and connected with the friction element of the counter shaft, said lever constituting means for shifting the friction element longitudi nallv of the counter shaft and swinging the counter shaft with relation to the driven shaft.

4. In variable speed mechanism of the class described, the combination of driving and driven shafts, an intermediate counter shaft, spaced standards supporting the counter shaft, a support for said standards to which the latter are swingingly connected, friction elements carried by all of said shafts for imparting variable speed to the driven shaft, a lever coacting with the support for the counter shaft standards and connected with the friction element of the counter shaft, said lever consituting means for shifting the friction element longitudinally of the counter shaft and swinging the counter shaft with relation to the driven shaft, and a second lever engageable with the end of the counter shaft for shifting the latter longitudinally to break operative connection with the driving shaft.

5. In variable speed mechanism of the class described, the combination of a driving shaft, a driven shaft, a counter shaft, friction driving elements upon said shafts, and means for shifting the counter shaft longitudinally and laterally out of operative relation to the driving and driven shafts.

6. In variable speed mechanism of the class described, the combination of a driving shaft, a driven shaft, a counter shaft intermediate said driving and driven shafts, friction devices carried by said shafts, yieldable means tending to move the counter shaft longitudinally to maintain operativerelation between the counter shaft and the driving shaft, and separate yieldable means tending to move the counter shaft laterally to maintain operative relation between said counter shaft and the driven shaft.

7. In variable speed mechanism of the class described, the combination of a driving shaft, a driven shaft, a counter shaft intermediate said driving and driven shafts, a friction disk secured to said counter shaft, a friction wheel on said driving shaft, manually operable means for shifting said friction wheel With respect to the friction disk of the counter shaft, manually operable means for shifting the counter shaft longitudinally to establish operative or inoperative relationship between the friction wheel and its friction disk, a friction device intermediate the counter shaft and the driven shaft, and manually operable means for swinging the counter shaft to establish operative or inoperative relation between the friction device of said counter shaft and the driven shaft.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

DANIEL APPLEGA'IE. 

